BTW, the $2.35 is nation wide minimum, in most areas maximum, wage for jobs that are supposed to get tips. It has not gone up in something like 20 years. What is minimum wage for non-tip earners nowadays? $5.75? Tell me how many of you on this list can live off of $230 week here in the US today? I am living off less, but I am also on assistance which is paying a good chunk of my cheap rent, and my medical expenses which is what keeps me here as I would have to make about 3-4x minimum wage to be able to afford the medical coverage I get from Medicaid. Of course, after working 40 years you would expect my Social Security would cover at least all my basic expenses, but it does not.
Now think of what it would be like trying to raise a family at those wages. And that $8 an hour AnnSan mentioned is quite good wages here in Boone unless you are one of those doctors, lawyers, or college professors I mentioned in my original post. Plus there are 15000 college kids competing for those jobs, which is part of why the wages are so low, as all they are looking for is pocket money.
I used to be in the skilled trades and made a decent living at least when I was working on union jobs. But now I am myself down there at the bottom. I now understand that the people stuck there are not there by choice. With effort I could probably climb back up, but many of those who are in similar economic situations have no possibility of changing their lives for the better.
And, BTW, I can actually eat at the fast food places cheaper than I can at home though I have to stick to the value menu and that gets tiresome real quick.
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Graywolf,
Be fair now, before you give our foreign visitors a bad impression. You are living in one of the poorest parts of the USA. In fact, about 90% of the US population has enough extra income to eating out at McDonald's when they want. <snip>
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com/graywolf.html
